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It’s a dark and stormy night in the kingdom of Granseal when a thief steals two jewels from the Tower of the Ancients.

The original Shining Force was a massive success for Sega, granting the Genesis/Megadrive with a strategy RPG to rival Nintendo’s popular Fire Emblem franchise. A sequel of some description was inevitable and when it arrived the result was truly mind-blowing; it’s little..

About The Game

It’s a dark and stormy night in the kingdom of Granseal when a thief steals two jewels from the Tower of the Ancients. He sets in motion strange events that lead to the resurrection of Zeon, the Devil King. Granseal’s king falls sick, the princess is kidnapped, and a door to Arc Valley, the Devil King’s home, is opened.

The young swordsman, Bowie, realizing the grave danger Granseal faces, must lead the Shining Force to find the Holy Sword and the stolen jewels, and protect Granseal against the invading armies of Zeon.

Not only is this game one of the best RPGs to ever be made for the Genesis, but in my opinion, is better than any ever made. I played this game as a child when it was first released, and to this day I have never found a game as great as this. About time they decided to add it up on here.

Is there an option pass 5 stars? It deserves more! Seriously, Once you get into the game, and are not so skeptical about the "minimal controls"(someone complained to me that it had lack of controls), you get right into the story. This was the only other game I wish my dad didn`t sell after beating it. I lost too many good games from this.

@Boab Gibb, if you have a GBA or DS, there is an excellent compilation of Phantasy Star I, II, and III out there on one GBA cartridge. I've never played IV before, though, but I've been told that it too is very good. Just thought I'd throw that out there... Phantasy Star I was (I believe) Master System only so I don't think it'll end up on VC unless they add that system. <br> <br>I loved the first Shining Force. I'll definitely get this one as soon as it comes out. I've never played Shining Force II before.

One of the greatest MD games ever, and possibly my favorite RPG of all time. They improved SF1 (which was awesome) by keeping kill stats and having cumulative experience points, so they don't reset at a new level. And lets not forget the legendary weapons forged from Mithril...

Compared to SH1, this game rocks the socks out of it. SH1's biggest is that you can't level up your Healers with just casting a spell on you or someone else who's got full HP. Thank god they changed that in the SH1 Remake for the GBA =)

This game is fantastic. The music is great and the graphics are nice. The characters are very cool also and the varying job classes are a nice addition. I've never beaten the first one, but was very close. Very enjoyable series, I reccomend it highly.

Shining Force 2 is the BEST! I can't wait for this. For those that have/want/need to play SF 1, get the GBA version. It has all of SF 1, but they introduce some new characters with a subplot...it's great!

I spent many days playing though this game mulitply times, I only beat it after the 4th time though the game.

The story is alot better than SF1 & they're not throwing loads of charaters at you in SF2 that you get to many untill very late in the game.

Upgrading your hero isn't bad ethier in this one, they keep thier previous stats and improve some others unlike SF1 where if you upgraded someone they would down-grade and you would have to power level them up again to be useful.

The graphics were a massive improvement over one and the music was ten times as good over one which kept using a telephone ringing in one battle music

I'm very fond of this game. It was the first RPG game I've ever played and my favourite one for many years. Nearly every year I play it again and beat it. I will get it the day it is available with no doubt.

Ah brilliant, this was also my first RPG. I didnt know what I was getting into at the time. I remember I thought it would be quite humorous to give my main character a comical name, it ran something like ****nose or something (I was young) little did I relise that id have to stare at that name till completion of my quest! And believe me, the joke had well worn off after an hour or so! That aside, I do still hold very fond memories of this game, I hope its been able to stand the test of time. Definitly a five star game on release, ill reserve my final judgement till I download and play this again.

Edit: Well, I found a rom anyways, and it was pretty good, I was suprised how much I liked it. It was very simple to pick up and I had a lot of fun. The only thing is, the rom is in japanese, so it took me a while to figure out what to do, but once I got over that hurtle, it was a lot of fun, and I couldn't put it down(I usually only play roms for 10 minutes or so). Plus the whole "I can't read japanese" thing gives me extra incentive to buy the actual game, though it is sad I won't be able to call the characters the names I made up anymore, because that did become part of the charm(Paco save Rodriguez!).

@Mickeymac If you are looking for more good strategy rpgs, here are a few good ones.Fire Emblem-there are a gamecube, wii and 2 game boy advance Fire Emblem games. The wii one is a difficult sequel to the gc one so I would start with another one. The gba one called Fire Emblem is a good place to start since the first few levels are easy. Anyway, Fire Emblem is for those who like challenging strategy rpgs. Since you can't level grind and once a character dies, he dies for good, Fire Emblem games can be difficult. I like them because they are challenging, but not too hard and I have to carefully think my moves out for each battle.

Disgaea (for the ps2 or psp)-This game focuses less on strategy and more on customization. It can be challenging, but you can always level grind if you get into trouble so it is never too hard. You have many character classes to choose from, each character learns many cool special moves, characters can be thrown, items can be leveled up by waging battles within them, characters can be leveled up to level 9999 and then reset to level 1, it has a hilarious story and exploding demon penguins. Anyway, it has a lot to it and is a fun and unique strategy rpg.

YA i AGREE searcher fire emblem is the way to go ok lol the gba shining force almost rivaled it though but still fire emblem was great. If you didnt know matths fire emblem is being remade for ds. I wonder if these are all the consoles the vc will ever feature...lol virtual boy

Thank you for your comment, but I don't think I could get into a Fire Emblem game, at least not at this point. I haven't even gotten a chance to purchase Shining Force yet( I would, if it would just stop raining all the blinkin' time), and I'm still learning the basics, so Fire Emblem would probably be a little too overwhelming. Plus, my brother rented the Gamecube version once, and he got bored after just one day( he was the one who got me into RPGs), and I never had much interest in it.

Disgaea on the other hand, looks really cool! Normally I don't like level-grinding, but from all the things I've seen people do in that game, I'd be looking for excuses to level-grind in that game! Not to mention I love it when games are more comedic than serious, albeit it does seem more anime-ish than I may be comfortable with. Though, I think the only time when I actually enjoy an anime is when it's trying to be funny. Plus, that game would be a perfect fit for my brother, since he has more ofan appreciation for overdone special attacks, level-grinding, and comedic storywriting than I do.

However, I don't think I'm quite ready for that one either. Honestly, right now, if I want a strategy game, I think I'll be more inclined to pick up Advanced Wars. If I'm playing a an RPG or strategy game, I have a tendency to wish that they would just give the character a Bazooka and a Tank, and be done with it. An Advanced Wars game would likely satisfy my cravings for modern military tech, while introducing me to more useful strategy game tactics.

But don't worry, Disgaea will soon follow suit.

Oh, and I hope they don't release this the moment I buy Shining Force 1, because that would just plain suck!

Edit: After playing Shining Force 1, all I can say is, I cannot play a Fire Emblem game! I die way too much, and having to restart every time would be too dang annoying! I also can't wait to see how SF2 improves on the first one, since I'd say the first is pretty dang good already.

Edit again: After playing Advanced Wars, I can firmly say that I was way off, and in terms of difficulty, it is far harder than Disgaea, and to be honest, the two games aren't even comparable gameplay wise. I think I should've gone with Disgaea, or maybe even FF Tactics A2, but I'll have to live with my purchase and make the best out of it.

Edit thrice: Okay, I've gotten more into AW. and I'm really starting to like it! It's more of a turned based RTS rather than chess with guns, like I assumed, but I'd say I love it even more because of it.

All in all, I've learned the destinction between Strategy and Strategy RPG, and have learned to appreciate each one for what it is. I think I'll wait until I get Shining Force II before I go fo any other SRPG, though, so I can better learn the ropes of that particular genre.

I'd pass on the Virtual Boy, but I'd like to see the Sega Saturn on the VC. I always wanted one, but they stopped selling it by the time I thought about it. In fact, for a while I thought it was something I had simply dreamt up, which makes me want it more.

There is no other Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game that I consistently drag out and play through more than Shining Force II. While I enjoy the Fire Emblem games, I still consider this series to be one of the best strategy games ever made.

This is odd... I just downloaded this game, but when I try to play it I only get a black screen (with sound). None of my other Virtual Console games have this problem. Do you have any idea why this could be?

My Wii is hooked up to a HDTV with component cables, but switching to non-widescreen and/or 480i 50Hz didn't help...

I live in a PAL region by the way..

Any idea what this could be? I'll try using a original cable instead of a component cable tomorrow, but I have some work to do for now and it may be a little hard to find

@ Talicus: Some games have problems with component cables. Open an affected game's manual, attach a nunchuk to your remote, then press Z + A + 2. All games with issues will be fixed then. If you ever want to disable it you need to do the same except press Z + A + 1.

I am a huge fan of the two Fire Emblem games that came out for the GBA, and I ended up playing them both all the way through twice. Shining Force II does interest me, but I fear that I might have been spoiled by the newer and more modern Fire Emblem games. Is there a chance of someone who's a fan of the GBA Fire Emblem games finding Shining Force II to be a tad basic? I'm in the middle of playing both Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Castle Crashers, and I don't really want to be downloading another game right at the moment. However, if Shining Force II is able to rival GBA FE games, I'll simply need to get it and spend all night playing it!

"If you couldn’t get on with the original then there’s nothing here that will entice you back into the fold"

Except for much better AI, and improved graphics/sound obviously.

Excellent sequel. Its only real flaws are a very limited inventory (makes battles longer) and a cookiecutter story (which is also qute poorly translated), but it's the battles that matter in games like these anyway and this one is extremely addictive!

Is there a chance of someone who's a fan of the GBA Fire Emblem games finding Shining Force II to be a tad basic?In terms on inventory it is much simpler. An item is 1 use, wepoans are unlimted use. There is usually no drawback to stronger wepaons (unless they are cursed in which case random paralsys, backfiring and other effects can be enjoyed).

But as a Fire Emblem player I feel I have less control over units. The order units move in is determined by an aglility stat which can be annoying in places (you can move them but when is determined by the stat). Also counter attacking and double attacking instead of being something that always happens (and vital) is a rare occurance. Not to mention battle formulae are not clear cut like Fire Emblem (it kind of annoys me how Fire Emblem is one of the only stratagy games out there where it is clear cut while the rest are arbitary numbers with arbitary effect).

Don't go into it expecting Fire Emblem is my advice. Though my playthrough I felt it was more focused on storytelling (which is meh even for the time) and exploration. The one thing it beats Fire Emblem games from the time at is presentation though (don't take my word for it but publications at the time)

I didn't complete it (i'm near the end fighting in the outside of a tower) as I selected the hardest difficulty and its getting cheap (most my army can survive one hit though most won't survive two) though the player has a few broken things to help them...boost is a planinly broken spell (especilly if you chose Karna from Creed's tower).

Thanks for that. The revelation that the story's pretty much cookie-cutter material might prove tiresome after being spoiled with FE's great, stylised dialogue, and not being able to get accurate information with regards to how much damage I'll do to my opponents might also be a bit of a deal breaker. However, as the game's a reputed classic, and as I missed out on just about every RPG from the Mega-Drive era, I probably owe this game a fair crack of the whip. I'm off all next week, and I'll be giving it a bash. I'll post here to give my impressions. Cheers.

"The battles get annoying after a while."The first 7-8 battles are not that fun, I admit that, but the rest is just pure love. I grew up with this game and it is just amazing. I just finished this on VC and it was worth every cent <3

I'm on the Red Baron right now. I wiped out every normal enemy off the screen and went to attack him with the main character (leader). He used some kind of "soul" attack and killed me in one blow. What an ass. =]

Just beat the game today. Man, I had a lot of fun. Too bad there's nothing to do once you beat it (and yes, I know of the secret battle after the credits). Somehow, I not too thrilled to play this game all over again. One, too much frustration, and two, it will get repetitive. Still, 5/5 the first time around.

I downloaded the first Shining Force, however found there was too high of a focus on replaying the same battle over and over for experience. This also seemed to repeat itself far too often. Does Shining Force II improve on these aspects in any way?

Yeah, that ruined the first Shining Force for me, too. Thankfully, there are random battles to help you level up your characters, so yeah, no more replaying the same G-ddamn battle over and over again.

This game was so damn good. I loved Shining Force 1 and this one fixed some things from last game. Random battles, as stated before, and you have to wait until level 20 to be promoted, instead of being foolish like me and getting to level 10 first battle in Shining Force 1 and promoting my whole party.

@MickeymacI got the game and I have to say, I'm enjoying it much more than the original. I also prefer the story in this one; which took somewhat of a backseat in the first Shining Force. I haven't met many actual random battles yet however.

I've heard many good things about this game.This will be my next DL.It plays kinda like Fire Emblem and I loved Fire Emblem. Speaking of Fire mblem do any of you think the older Japan only Fire Emblems will come out to VC cause I would love to play those.